Jury 2016

Amy Peterson

Studio Supervisor at Zulily
I discovered my passion for filmmaking, appropriately, as a student at the University of Southern California. While I should have been poring over organic chemistry textbooks, I was conveniently distracting myself on set by helping my film student friends with their homework of making short films. Perhaps it was those behind-the-scenes experiences, along with my science background, that contribute to my desire to deconstruct a film: how the shot was made, what it communicates to the viewer, whether the director achieved the effect they were hoping for…
I do not assume anything about a film before viewing it—and often avoid watching trailers—because I want the film to speak for itself and tell me what it has to say about the world. Trailers can be misleading, and movie reviewers are often biased. As a result, I tend to favor off-beat films such as Joe vs. the Volcano, Barbarella and Better Off Dead. I like films that are as much about escaping into another world as they are about waking you up to the world around you.

Humberto Pérez-Blanco

Humberto Pérez-Blanco is senior lecturer in film at the University of the West of England where he teaches film theory and history with a particular focus on world cinema. His research interest is in the political uses of cinema with a focus on Latin American cinema. He is a funding member of the Bristol Radical Film Festival collective.

Derek Horne

Derek Horne is the Director of Talent Relations at Magnet Media, a production company and interactive marketing firm. Derek has been a longtime advocate for short films throughout his career, starting in the 90’s while working in acquisitions for Atom Films, Shortbuzz.com, and iCast, curating short film programs at the Anthology Film Archives in New York City, and writing articles about short films for IndieWire. In 2001 he became the founding editor of Kodak’s “Campus Beat” magazine for five years where he interviewed student filmmakers about their award-winning short film projects. He worked in the Filmmaker Services Department at the Sundance Film Festival for six years and he was the Film Coordinator at Chapman University’s film school for ten years handling the distribution of thousands of student films. Having programmed for numerous festivals in the past from Newport (R.I.) to Newport Beach (Calif), and from Sarasota to Santa Fe, he is currently the Director of Short Film Programming at the Annapolis Film Festival, the Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, and programmer for the DC Shorts Film Festival.

Scott Schuster

Scott Schuster is currently under contract as the Technical Director and Production Manager for The Blackhawk Children’s Theater and The Waterloo Community Playhouse in Iowa, USA. He currently collaborates with guest designers and directors to oversee a 12 show season with two venues. He has a wide background in producing, directing, performing, and managing theatrical venues. In 2013, Schuster was nominated for the Vivian Vance Award for his performance in “Spring Awakening” as the 9 Adult Male Roles. In 2011, Schuster’s production company, Prodigal Sons’ Productions, paired with the Albuquerque Film Festival to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of David Mamet’s “Sexual Perversity in Chicago”, which bridged the gap between film and theater. Along with Schuster’s theatrical credits, he has appeared in several films, web series, and commercials. Early in his professional career, Schuster worked for O’Connor Casting (the largest television commercial casting company in the United States in 2002) as a casting assistant, as well as, a talent scout and agent for Lily’s Talent Agency.

Dr Eylem Atakav

Dr Eylem Atakav is a filmmaker and Senior Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia where she teaches courses on women and film; women, Islam and media; and Middle Eastern media. She is the author of Women and Turkish Cinema: Gender Politics, Cultural Identity and Representation (2012) and editor of Directory of World Cinema: Turkey (2013), and the director of Growing Up Married (2016), a documentary on child-marriage. She writes frequently on issues around gender and culture for the Huffington Post (UK) and for her co-authored blog on women’s cinema: Auteuse Theories.

Stephanie Sinclair

Art Historian
Stephanie has over ten years of experience in fine arts management having collaborated on contemporary art exhibitions, special events, and heritage and cultural activities. She enjoys creating dialogues around exhibitions and events that broaden the discourse and increase public engagement within the arts.

Christina Kolb-Bettes

Law Firm Administrator/ Special Events Coordinator American Diabetes Association
I have spent 12 years as a paralegal and law firm administrator for a boutique law firm that specialized in plaintiff’s legal malpractice in Denver, Colorado. After deciding to make a transitional life decision, I switched gears to serve on the committee that organizes the American Diabetes Association’s Tour de Cure, which is a million dollar biking fundraiser with several thousand participants. Also after volunteering with my neighborhood revitalization committee and at the local elementary school, I found that I prefer cinema that has more purpose than mindless escapism. Cinema, in my experience, has been a great way to socialize and share memories.

Martin Tease

Martin Tease is a freelance associate producer, production manager and art department coordinator who began his career in entertainment as a Press and Publicity Intern for the NBC Universal Network. After graduating from Northern Arizona University with a degree in Broadcast Journalism and Film Production, Martin was hired as a staff publicity coordinator writing talent and programmed biographies for the electronic press and media, Martin attended script readings, production meetings and show tapings for NBC’s 1996 through 1997 Fall Season.
After a two-year boot camp at the William Morris Agency, Martin began his production career with Nina Huang and Jules Daly who produced commercials for Director Ridley Scott and Tony Scott. While on staff at Ridley Scott and Associates, Martin began freelance work as a production assistant on music videos directed by Hype Williams, Dave Meyers, Tim Story, Jake Nava, Roman and Sofia Coppola, Erik White, Bille Woodruff, Renny Harlin, David Fincher, Mc G Jake Scott, Luke Scott and Rawson Thurber.
As a staff production coordinator and freelance production manager at FM Rocks, Martin worked on several MTV Award Winning Video productions featuring Destiny’s Child, Toni Braxton, Mariah Carey, Whitney Houston, to name a few. With an eye for Television, Martin worked for Producer/Director JJ Abrahams pilot presentation of Alias as a field coordinator, Peter Bogdanovich’s Grammy Award Winning Documentary “Runnin’ Down a Dream’ as a production manager and associate producer for Linda Ellman Productions and Lifetime Television where he worked as an associate researcher in development and reality TV programming.

David Burns

Writer & Producer
David is a London-based film producer and script writer. Originally an Architect, he trained as a commercials film producer under Jon Staton, the ex Director of Television at Saatchi and Saatchi.
In 2002, David left to set up Eden Films to make features. His first movie, the romantic comedy, Making Waves, starred Craig Henderson, Susie Benton and Robert Hardy and was directed by Nicolas van Pallandt. Distribution by Sony Pictures. His second film, Tracker, starred Ray Winstone and Temuera Morrison and was Directed by British action director, Ian Sharp (Who Dares Wins) with distribution in America by Lionsgate.
Alongside co-producing the show Tomb Raider Live In Concert (which opens at the Hammersmith Apollo on December 18th, 2016), David is currently developing two features (Politics, a John le Carré-style thriller; and War Criminal, the true story of a Nazi who was captured after 50 years on the run and prosecuted in London in 1999) and two projects for TV: a 3-part mini-series, Sociopath (a true-life drama), and Lucidae (a Stargate-type sci-fi series). Please see www.edenfilms.com

Sandra Bögelein

Sandra Bogelein is a Green Party councillor at Norwich city council and teaches statistics and psychology at the University of East Anglia. She has recently completed her PhD in environmental psychology, studying the collective action problem of climate change mitigation. Most importantly she is mum to her 10 month old son, Sammy, (future Green Party leader and Prime Minister).